Yale Improves to 8-0 in Ivy Play As Men's Basketball Falls, 67-55

Prior to Saturday night’s matchup between Harvard and Yale at Lavietes Pavilion, a Bulldogs beat reporter tweeted about the amount of championship banners—16 in total— hanging from the arena’s rafters.

The next two hours illustrated the difference between the teams that made the rafters and the team that took the court, as Yale handed Harvard its third straight loss at home. After a spirited effort from the hosts (10-14, 2-6 Ivy League) to keep the score close early, Yale (16-5, 8-0) led by double figures for the last 21 minutes of action in a 67-55 win. Yale’s third consecutive victory in Cambridge is a first in the Tommy Amaker era.

“They’re definitely a team right now that has great momentum going and you can’t deny that they are playing very great basketball,” junior forward Zena Edosomwan said. “They look very confident on the court, they look very together.”

The Bulldogs took charge of the game late in the first half behind its two stars—senior forward Justin Sears and sophomore point guard Makai Mason. While Harvard had success early on with senior Agunwa Okolie guarding Mason, it was forced to move over freshman Tommy McCarthy after Okolie picked up his second foul with 7:40 remaining.

From that point forward, Harvard’s defense cratered. Yale had 19 points in the remainder of the half, 15 from Sears and Mason. Their counterparts—McCarthy and junior forward Zena Edosomwan—shot just four for 14 in the first half. Edosomwan started the game with a jumper and two blocks of Sears but missed seven of his next eight shots.

“We go to him a lot and we need to be more efficient with the outcome of what we are getting when we go to him so much,” Amaker said.

Coming out of halftime, the Bulldogs did not let up. Despite the negligible contributions of senior Brandon Sherrod—whose six points were 12 less than his average in conference play—Yale used precise passing to cut through a typically stingy Harvard defense and get layup after layup. After missing its first two layups of the second period, Yale came away with points on five of the next six possessions.

The last three scores followed a quick 5-1 Harvard run and pushed the lead to 14 with 14 minutes remaining. The Crimson cut the lead to 11, but was unable to get it down further. When Mason and Sears hit the bench midway through the second period, Yale’s supporting cast pushed the lead from 11 to 17.

“There’s no hiding from our struggles this year, especially in Ivy League play,” Edosowman said. “None of obviously expected to be kind of at this point.”

Yale’s defense was the story in the second half. While Edosomwan caught fire late and finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds, Harvard shot just 40 percent overall and made just four of 16 three-point attempts, with freshman sharpshooter Corey Johnson being the only Harvard player to nail a triple.

After shooting 36 percent in the first 12 minutes of the second period, Harvard found a brief burst of offense late by going to Edosomwan on every possession. The resulting 7-0 run kept Yale’s starters on the floor but never threatened the lead as Harvard’s inability to capitalize on Yale’s mistakes hurt it time and time again. For the game, the Crimson turned 10 offensive rebounds into just five second chance points and had just five points off Yale’s eight turnovers.

Afterwards, Amaker talked about the unfamiliarity of the situation for the Crimson—who sit six games back of Yale at the bottom of the Ancient Eight standings.

“This is new for our team and our program at this stage,” Amaker said. “… There’s a lot that can be learned and taken away from these types of moments and we are hopeful that we will maximize that.”

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com